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Tuesday, 5 April 2011

CAN GOVERNMENT PAY SCHOLARSHIPS?

News that the opening of Limkokwing Universityin Swaziland might be delayed raise suspicions that the Swazi Government can’t afford to pay the scholarships it promised.

The Government announced with some fanfare in February 2011 that it would support 800 students with scholarships at the controversial university. This support could cost as much as E16 million (US$2.1 million) a year.

But the kingdom is broke. Last week it was revealed that it couldn’t pay its US$ 2 million electricity bills and government offices could soon go dark.

Today (5 April 2011), the Times of Swaziland reported that staff in Swaziland’s embassies abroad had not been paid for the past three months.

Over the past few weeks a number of cases have emerged showing that the Swazi Government is finding it difficult to meet its financial commitments. Teachers say that their pension contributions have been diverted by the government to pay its day-to-day bills.

Limkokwing hoped to open on Friday (8 April 2011), but the Swazi Observer reported today that this could be delayed. A spokesperson for the university is quoted saying it still hoped to open on time but ‘everything would depend on the process of awarding scholarships by government’.

The newspaper was unable to discover how many students had been enrolled at the university so far.